In an interview last year, Yard Act frontman James Smith spoke about how his band had “Trojan Horsed” the music industry. The Leeds-formed group snuck into the charts in 2020 amid a cavalry of post-punk acts. Early singles – the juddery “Dark Days” and the foot-stomping “Fixer Upper”, with its funky “Fame” guitar squalls – saw the four-piece (completed by Ryan Needham on bass, Sam Shipstone on guitar and Jay Russell on drums) lumped in with London bands such as Dry Cleaning and Black Midi. Eager comparisons were also drawn to the Sprechgesang (spoken-word singing) scene populated by IDLES, Sleaford Mods, and Black Country, New Road. But Yard Act’s wry yet good-humoured take on post-punk always had that extra dose of salt, Smith’s tongue firmly in cheek.
“It’s weird, I feel there were a lot of good reviews for the first album that I disagreed with,” the 32-year-old says. He’s referring to their excellent debut The Overload, released in January and shortlisted for this week's Mercury Prize. “A lot of people seemed to get the wrong impression of us but still praised it. I felt like they’d missed the angle I was coming from. They thought it was a ‘state of the nation’ thing, anti-Brexit, anti-Tory.” He’s lounging in his chair at a restaurant in Sicily, where Yard Act are performing as part of Ypsigrock festival. “Grazie,” he says to the waitress clearing away his plate, in a passable Italian accent. “Was that good?” he asks, then puts on his best Westminster boys’ school voice: “I do a very good northern accent as well.”
